The former mayor of Dakar, Barthélémy Dias, spoke to the press to denounce dysfunctions in the organization of the Dakar Youth Olympic Games.
According to him, a person, whom he did not name, surrounded by accomplices, lacks transparency regarding the management of the 112 million euros, or approximately 80 billion CFA francs, allocated to this event. The mayor emphasized: “This host contract, there are only three signatories. There is the town hall of Dakar, there is the State of Senegal and there is the international Olympic committee which is located in Switzerland. And if someone wants to provide a denial, as we are not able to tell the truth to the Senegalese, let them provide a denial with proof, and stop taking the Senegalese people, particularly the people of Dakar, for a bunch of wild ducks that we are not.”
Regarding financial management, he said: “People who have 80 billion will only tell you that for plane tickets and food they plan to spend around twenty billion. I will start speaking, because the Senegalese need to open their eyes, open their ears and start listening.” Continuing, he added: “From the moment I was arrested, I would have liked to have a conversation with this person who challenged me. But from the moment this person openly admits that the mayor of Dakar does not have all the elements, he confirms what I said. He confirms that I said that it was the Dakar town hall which applied so that Dakar could host the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, and not the Senegalese National Olympic Sports Committee, nor the State of Senegal”.
The mayor also wonders: “Is it too much to ask for 80 billion FCFA to develop the HLM cornice? We gave them a file that had already been studied, costed and estimated at around 4 and a half billion. Does he think it’s too much to ask to develop the sports course on Boulevard de la Gueule-Tapée?”
For Barthélémy Dias, the legacy of the Games should not be limited to the rehabilitation or repair of the Iba Mar Diop stadium. He even threatens to take the fight internationally: “I will go abroad to communicate. I will communicate abroad in English and French. The world must definitively understand that mediocrity cannot be Negro and excellence cannot be Ebony”.
The mayor also recalled having organized a municipal retreat in Saly, during which the organizing committee of the Youth Olympic Games had the obligation to present to the municipal council the details of the preparations for this international event. However, he regrets: “It was my surprise to see people invited by the mayor of Dakar who decided not to enter the room on the pretext that there was a political situation which did not concern them. And I remind you that these people always spoke well before this situation with a lot of respect. To put it mildly, these people were almost begging me to play the game.” And added: “Those who think that Barth is no longer the mayor of Dakar and that they can afford to do what they want, I repeat, they are seriously mistaken.”
